Starting Over: Sorceress of the Cards
by Senshi of Valis
Summary: Sequel to Starting Over: Do You Want to be Friends. Ranko has gained much confidence training with Xellos but she will need it to face the challenges ahead as new friends and enemies appear.
1. Chapter 1

Starting Over: Sorceress of the Cards

Chapter 1

Written by Senshi of Valis

Ranma ½ created by Rumiko Takahashi

Card Captor Sakura created by Clamp

Slayers created by ?

YuGiOh created by ?

I don't own any of the anime/manga characters that may appear in cameos.

I don't own any of these series or the characters in each.

SeCtIoN bReAk

Ranko leaned back in her seat on the train as it sped toward its destination, unfortunately it was heading for Jubaan and not home. She had to get off of the train at Jubaan station and board another one that was heading to Nerima. Of course she could have just walked, roof hopped or used raywing to get from Jubaan to Nerima but she wanted to get home without being completely exhausted.

She was glad that the judgment was over and she was made the Mistress of the Clow but one thing bothered her about that. The Wood Card changed during the judgment and in a way that worried Ranko, why did it change? It had become hers but so had the others but they didn't change. What was the difference?

With a sigh she decided to change her thoughts to something else, with a smile she thought about Bakura, the boy she was in love with. For the first week after the trials they had went out almost every night but then Xellos had shown up and dragged her off to the middle of nowhere for two weeks to train her in other forms of magic which she absorbed the lessons like a sponge absorbs water. She was a natural.

With a smile she remembered when the goofball showed back up and scared her poor mother half to death…then again…Nodoka may have ended up hurting Xellos if Ranko didn't intervene…

Flashback

Nodoka walked into the living room and stared at the boy sitting on the couch with a yellow shirt, black pants and brown boots with a cloak around his shoulders and a staff across his lap. His purple hair reminded her a little bit of Nabiki's though it was a little longer but the expression on his face…though it looked happy it sent shivers down her spine.

"Wh-Who are you?" Nodoka asked, shocked that he was in there this early in the morning.

"Good morning, I am here for your daughter." The box said in a smug voice.

"Ranko…what do you want with Ranko?" Nodoka demanded.

"Ahhh…now that's a…secret." The box said with a huge grin.

"I won't let you hurt her." Growled Nodoka.

"Now why on earth would I do something like that? After all we are of one flesh so to speak." The boy said.

"O-One flesh…I swear to god I'll kill you…you little bastard if you lay one finger on my daughter!" Nodoka hissed.

"Oh really?" the boy asked, opening his eyes for the first time. They were the same color as his hair but the where so…scary.

"Stop scaring the woman, Xellos." Bast said, jumping up onto the arm of the couch Xellos was sitting on, between him and Nodoka. "Don't worry, Nodoka. Xellos is Ranko's brother of sorts. He was here cursed side."

"C-Cursed side?" Nodoka asked, "Wait a minute, you talk? Don't tell me your another one of those damned moon cats."

"Moon cats…ooooh, them! No way, I can't stand that…that annoying, self centered, better than everyone else Luna." Bast said angrily then thought out loud, "Though Artemis was fun back in the old days…"

"I…What…" Nodoka mumbled, trying somehow to figure out just what was going on.

"Hi, mom, what's going on?" Ranko asked coming into the room.

"Hi kiddo, ready for that training?" Xellos asked.

"Xellos?" Ranko asked, shocked.

"The one and only." Xellos said with a smile.

End flashback

It was a pain to talk Nodoka to allow Ranko to leave, though Ranko hated the idea herself but was promised that it would only take two weeks to learn the ground work and learn some basic spells. After that it should be safe enough to teach her in the city since by then she should have learned enough control to not cause any major damage to anything. So Nodoka finally, though very reluctantly, agreed on the condition that Ranko carried a special cell phone designed by her family so they could stay in touch.

The problem with this though was Ranko was granted access to several books and scrolls on magic since she had to study them and learn how to read and write in that language. It actually took a week to learn that, which surprised Ranko and Xellos both how she took to everything like she did it all her life. Xellos said that he would have sworn that she was an old friend's reincarnation if he didn't know better. Bast told them both that Lina and the other's were still alive though suspended in time by a backlash from a very powerful spell called the giga slave.

During the day Xellos had taught her how to feel the power of the Higher Mazoku and how to gather their power, channeling it through her for the spells she needed. The spells themselves felt so different than when she used her other magic with the Clow. Some of it felt so dark to her while others seemed to feel her with some kind of…divine feeling.

During the early evenings though after dinner she would call her mom, spending at least an hour talking to her reassuring her that everything was going great. Afterwards she would spend time with Xellos as he tutored her on languages contained within the books. After he retired for the evening, often times with Bast who appeared about every evening, she would study the spells and magic and learned much about them on her own. She remembered the shock on Xellos's face when he tested her the day before.

Flashback

"Okay, Ranko." Xellos said, "Tomorrow we will be heading back but today, today I want to test you. You may use any spell that you learned and all you have to do is tag me with it."

"Sure." Ranko said with a smile, this would be easy. She had been wanting to test out the spell that she learned last night anyways. As Xellos teleported away from Ranko a little she crossed her arms across her chest and chanted quietly, feeling her amplifiers that Xellos had given to her react to the gathering power, enhancing it. "Darkness from twilight, crimson from blood that flows; buried in the flow of time; in Thy great name, I pledge myself to darkness!" She raised her hands up into the air letting the dark energies gather into her palms, "Those who oppose us shall be destroyed by the power you and I possess! DRAGU SLAVE!" Thrusting her hands down and forward she let the power go and it flew toward Xellos who had an expression like a deer caught in the headlights of an incoming car.

The resulting explosion left a huge crater and a smoking Xellos, "Y-You passed." He whimpered, a small wisp of smoking coming out of his mouth before he fell to the ground unconscious.

End flashback

She couldn't help giggle about that which brought a couple strange looks her way but she didn't care. The last two weeks had changed her a lot, she was so much stronger and had so much more self confidence. She still had not gotten over everything that had happened to her, she didn't know if she ever would but she refused to let it rule her life anymore. Everyone else believed in her, Bakura, her mother…even a Goddess and someone who was closely related to demons believed in her so it was time she tried to believe more in herself and with every new spell mattered her self confidence grew more and more. If Genma ever returned, she knew just what she was going to do to him. A nice Laguna Blade up the ass for starters would be nice…even if she still hadn't perfected it she could still use it and could use enough power to do some serious damage to a human.

Shaking her head to get rid of those thoughts she thought about Li and Sakura. Ranko had refused to let Yue wipe his memories and since she was his new Mistress he had to obey. It was a shock though when she learned that Tofu had turned out to be Yue and he was also now dating Kasumi while Sakura had actually went out with Li right before Ranko had left on the training trip with Xellos.

Ryoga though, she had no idea what happened to him, he had disappeared a few days before she left but she wasn't worried. He was strong and could take care of himself and with both curses removed he could easily find his way around. Maybe he finally found home again…she hoped he did, she knew how much he missed them even if he denied it.

Nabiki and Tatewaki was another story, they weren't dating but they were spending a lot of time together the few days before Ranko left. She could see that Tatewaki cared for Nabiki but Nabiki…Ranko wasn't sure what the girl was thinking. So many years behind the Ice Queen façade were making it difficult for Nabiki to open up to Tatewaki. Ranko wanted to see what she could to help Nabiki when she got back home finally.

Tomoyo…Ranko didn't understand her sometimes but they did become great friends. Tomoyo was a genius when it came to designing and also when it came to any type of photography, either video or just a simple digital camera. Tomoyo had so much in common with Nabiki in that respect, both of them had spent hours on the computers editing video and other stuff.

Ranko smiled when she thought of Ukyo, Nodoka had adopted her into the family though Ukyo wanted to stay at her restaurant still with Konatsu. It was Ukyo's life so in the end Nodoka had relented but insisted on funding Ukyo and her shop. It was kind of amusing how much Nodoka had taken to Konatsu, she came to care about him as another of her children and insisted on taking both of them shopping and had ended up buying both Ukyo and Konatsu a whole new wardrobe, half of Konatsu's being boys clothes and the other half girls. Nodoka had also supplied a lot of new and updated equipment for Ukyo which made running the restaurant a little easier.

Kodachi, the thought of her had made Ranko's smile grow even more. Ranko had become very close to the girl and a new rivalry grew between them though it wasn't violent…it was video games. Kodachi was psyched about the new Soul Calibur game coming out soon and Ranko found it hard not to get a little excited herself. They were going to make their own characters in it look as close to themselves as possible.

"Jubaan station coming up." The intercom squawked as the train began slowing down. Ranko grabbed picked up her pack from off the floor in front of her as she stood up and slipped it on. She was so close to getting home now, she couldn't wait to see everyone.

Getting off the train she stepped into the crowd of people who were either getting off of the train as well or just getting on. A shock of purple hair drew her attention to Xellos who was standing a little ways ahead of her. He had declined riding on the train saying he couldn't stand the things so he had made his own way here.

"I got good news and bad news, Ranko." Xellos said with his eternal grin.

"Bad news first." Ranko sighed.

"There is a three hour wait until the next train." Xellos responded.

"And what's the good news?" Ranko asked.

"There is a three hour wait until the next train." Xellos said, his grin growing wider.

"I guess we could go ahead and roof hop." Ranko said.

"But I already got your ticket." Xellos said, "Why don't we just look around for awhile. Bast might even join us later."

"I guess…maybe we could get something to eat. I'm dying for something different than camp food." Ranko grinned.

sEcTiOn BrEaK

Makoto sighed as she absent mindedly munched on a fry as she sat across from her recently reunited brother. She was happy for him that he had finally gotten rid of his directional curse but a part of her still resented him to some degree. Where was he when she needed him, when their mom and step dad died in that plane accident.

Of course he didn't know that their mother had gotten a divorce and remarried, or that both of them had died since he was lost somewhere. She couldn't hate him for what wasn't his fault, especially since after they did die she had to sell the property and about everything else to get enough money to pay up an apartment for year and have enough for school, food and what little clothes she had. It had taken some doing for her brother to even find her.

The bad thing was that she was very close to running out of money and it was very difficult finding a job. Every time she thought she had one they hired someone else instead of her. It was so frustrating. If she didn't find one soon though she would lose her apartment because of the lease about ready to expire. She had no idea what to do.

At first she thought about entering that Duel Monsters tournament that was in Nerima but when she went to purchase one of those duel disks they were way too much for her to risk spending what little money she had on one. The prize money for the top three was a decent amount but if she lost then she would lose the money she had put into her duel disk.

"Are you okay, sis?" Ryoga asked.

"Yeah, I'm sorry Ryoga." Makoto said. "I just have a lot on my mind lately."

"I'm still sorry about not being there, Mako." Ryoga said.

"It's not that bro, I…I need a job or I'm going to be in trouble." Makoto said.

"A job?" Ryoga said, "Why don't you try getting on as an assistant to a dojo or something?"

"Don't you think that I tried that?" Makoto asked, "I also tried so many other things."

"Maybe I can help somehow." Ryoga said.

"I doubt it unless you know someone who is hiring." Makoto said.

"Hi Makoto." Usagi chirped sitting next to Makoto.

"Hi Usagi." Makoto said happily, hiding her depressed state for her friend's sake.

"Hi Usagi." Ryoga said, waving to the blonde girl and her strange black cat who sat on her shoulder.

"Rei is going to have a party at the shrine tonight and wanted to know if you two wanted to come." Usagi asked as she stole one of Ryoga's fries.

"I'm sorry Usagi, but I can't make it tonight." Makoto said sadly.

"Me either." Ryoga said.

Makoto sighed as her communicator was going off, she didn't need this now.

"Another monster?" Ryoga asked.

"Probably." Makoto said as the three left the table and headed to the door. When they got outside Usagi answered her communicator.

"Monster attacking down town." Ami said over the small device.

"We will be right there." Usagi said.

SeCtIoN bReAk

Ranko looked in through the window at a dress she was thinking about going in and buying. She was trying to think if Bakura would like it, it was a little to high and too low cut in places but it was a beautiful green silk that she liked. She may have been feeling better but she still wasn't ready to start parading around in skimpy clothes. In a way, she was more of a tomboy than she used to accuse Akane of being, she preferred slacks and sweats half of the time more than she liked wearing dresses. Still, she did wear dresses, especially when she wanted to look nice for Bakura.

She wasn't sure what had happened to Xellos though, he had disappeared when she started window shopping. It had annoyed her a little but she was glad in a way to have some time alone to shop in peace without his complaining. She giggled at that, who would have thought the great Xellos had a weakness…shopping!

A large fireball shot past her and slammed into the store front shattering the window and incinerating the dress she was just looking at. The dress she was debating to buy for her next date with Bakura. The dress she wanted to tease Bakura a little bit in. She could see through the flames and saw the occupants of the store seemed okay and was now using fire extinguishers to put out the blaze.

Slowly she turned around just in time to catch a blonde haired girl dressed in a skimpy sailor fuku with the oddest hairstyle with two long pigtails. Carefully she helped the girl stand as she looked around. There were several other girls who were scattered around the ground and a couple still up facing off against some…thing. It was a crystal woman with two long crystal blades as her hands. The girls who weren't unconscious were throwing off some heavy spells but each time one hit the crystal woman they were either deflected or absorbed causing no damage.

"Buksai Tenketsu!" Ryoga cried falling from above and striking the woman then screamed in pain for a few seconds, holding his finger.

"Ryoga!" Ranko cried out to him as she ran forward.

"Ranko!" Ryoga exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"

"I had a three hour layover until I could get a train to Nerima." Ranko said.

"Oh…okay." Ryoga said, a small amount of hrut in his voice.

"I'm glad to see you though." Ranko said with a bright smile. "I was worried about you."

"Thanks." Ryoga said, smiling. "I'm glad that you're here."

"STOP IGNORING ME!" the crystal woman screeched.

"YOU!" Ranko growled, turning to face the woman, "You destroyed the dress I was going to buy for my Bakura!"

"What?" the crystal woman asked, confused.

"Earth below me, submit to my will!" Ranko whispered, power cursing into her hand. Kneeling down she slammed her open hand into the ground and cried, "DUG HAUT!"

The ground rumbled under Ranko's hand then large spears of stone started shooting up from the ground traveling towards the woman who looked on in shock before several of the spears impaled her, shattering her body before it dissolved into dust, dropping a crystal pump to the ground, also shattering. The last sound the woman made was a soft, "Lovely."

"Whoa." Ryoga gasped, "That was pretty cool, Ranko."

"Feh, you should have seen it if I used my amplifiers." Ranko smirked.

"Who are you?" one of the girls asked, her hair a very short sandy blonde color. She seemed angry for some reason.

"I'm Ranko Kuno, the beautiful sorcery genius.." Ranko said with pride. "Who are you and why are you wearing such a perverted version of a school fuku fighting monsters? Don't you know that about everytime you move you flash someone?"

Ranko gulped as the other girl's face turned red in a mixture of embarrassment and outrage. "Who the hell are you calling a pervert you little tramp?"

"I-I am not a tramp…" Ranko said, squeezing her eyes shut tightly, "I'm not a whore, a tramp, or a slut!"

The blonde didn't know what hit her as Ranko was all over her. It only took a few seconds of the amagurikan to put the girl out.

"Ranko…are you okay?" Ryoga asked.

"Y-Yeah…it just hurts a little still when I'm called that…bad memories you know." Ranko whispered, then smiled, "So what are you up to, you got the hots for one of these girls?"

"Wh-Wh…" Ryoga tried to say but a brown haired girl slapped his back softly, smiling.

"Are you okay, Ryoga?" the girl asked.

"Yeah, thanks Jupiter." Ryoga said.

"That was awesome…miss?" Jupiter said.

"My name's Ranko." Ranko said with a smile.

"Ranko, that was awesome." Jupiter said, "Don't worry about Uranus, she needs to be knocked around sometimes when she starts thinking that she's better than everyone else. Do you think you could maybe teach me that sometime?"

"Well, I would but I can't…its an ancient Amazon secret that I promised I would never teach anyone.

"Thank you so much for stopping that thing." The blond with the funny hair said.

"It was no big." Ranko said, waving the blond off. "Maybe I was a little out of line with my remark about your guys' clothes. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry." The blonde with the funny hair laughed, "Most of us hate the uniforms but we don't have much of a choice, it's what comes with the power."

"Thanks." Ranko said with a smile.

"So when does the train leave that you need to be on, anyways?" Ryoga asked.

"In fifteen minutes…I have to go." Ranko said, "I'll see you later Ryoga."

With that Ranko hurried to the station to make the train for Nerima before it left, knowing that Xellos could fend for himself if he didn't make it. He probably went ahead anyways since he hated trains.

sEcTiOn BrEaK

"That's much better." Ryoga said, bending his finger to make sure it was okay after Saturn healed it. "Thanks."

"Your welcome." Saturn said smiling.

"What was her problem?" Uranus mumbled as she sat on the roof not far away from Saturn and Ryoga.

"You're lucky she is the one who did it," Ryoga growled, "She is a friend of mine who has been through hell! If you ever call her anything like that again I WILL break you in half!"

"Chill out, bro." Jupiter said.

"I'm sorry, sis." Ryoga said, "But you have no idea what her father did to her and when I left a few weeks ago to come visit you she was doing better but…she still had problems getting over it."

"What did he do to her?" Jupiter asked softly.

"It's not my place to tell you exactly what happened…but he hurt her very badly." Ryoga said.

"I'm sorry." Uranus said, "I didn't know."

"I'm not the one who you need to apologize to." Ryoga said.

SeCtIoN bReAk

AN: Hi everyone, I hope everyone enjoyed the first chapter of Starting Over: Sorceress of the Cards. This is the sequel to my other story, Starting Over: Do You Want to be Friends and this is one going to end up being much longer and hopefully much better written. I know where this story is going but I would like to hear everyone's comments and suggestions because as with my previous story this may change depending on what happens.

I don't know if Makoto or any of the other Senshi will become regulars in this story but I decided to make Ryoga Makoto's older brother. Since their real dad is the one with the curse, their mother didn't have it and Makoto took after her mother and doesn't have it either. If I bring in Makoto, or any of the other senshi, will all depend on what people say about them being in this chapter.

The Yugi gang will show up in the next chapter or two and stay around for a couple chapters for the tournament and then they will pretty much all be out of the story except for Bakura. After that, or maybe in the last chapter of the tournament is when Ranko will start changing the cards over to star cards thanks to a new character which will show up as a new student in school which will be starting soon.

I decided to answer a few questions, mostly from e-mail though some from the reviews from my last story here.

**1 Why didn't Genma just rob a bank or something instead of trying to control Ranko?**

Because the Tendo family, while Kimiko was still alive, was pretty much loaded when they made the promise to unite the schools. Genma talked Soun into putting the Dojo up and a hefty sum of money for the dowry. Kimiko reluctantly agreed but made it only when they married that Genma's son would inherit it. That's why he went with three different women trying to have a son but when Ranko was born Genma had learned about the cursed springs and started his plan. What does this have to do with why he didn't just rob a bank? Simple. He wanted the money and everything but he wanted to be able to enjoy it and while it was unethical it wasn't exactly illegal if he came up with reasons to break off the engagements on the road during the small stuff. He knew about the Gambler King so he would have used that as a breach in the arrangement with Ukyo's family and other loop holes for all of the others. He would have come up with something with Ranko and Akane when they wed saying that they were an embarrassment to the clan and threw them out. So in a way it was legal, except for what he did with the three women, including Nodoka, which he rationalized that he could get away with it easy enough if he was careful. If he went on a wide spread bank robbing spree he would have eventually been caught and shot, he may have been a great martial artist but he wasn't immortal and didn't want the attention of being wanted which would have made it very difficult to enjoy the spoils of the dojo and everything else he scammed from others.

**2 Is MewMew Power/Tokyo MewMew going to become a major theme in this story?**

No, the only thing that will be similar will be Ranko's cat ears and tail which pops up under extreme cases of stress or when she wants to go neko to enhance her fighting abilities like her amplifiers enhance her magic abilities.

**3 Kasumi and Tofu had sex? That's just sick and wrong. I don't even know why I've read this story this far. I'm sorry but it started to lose its appeal when you brought Bakura in. If it had stayed a clean Ranma/CCS crossover then it wouldn't be bad like it is now. You should also work on your spelling problems.**

This is just not interesting to me anymore. I find myself skimming through the chapters looking for something worth reading but I can't find anything. It was good but now it's bland and lifeless, like anything from Arby's. This will be the last chapter I read.

Flames like this are annoying, and they hurt people's feelings. If you don't like the story then don't read it…I'm happy that so many people seem to like the story but to write something like this makes oneself look…well, like a 'stupid jackass' as Ukyo would put it. If you don't like a story, don't read it and don't try and make the author feel like crap or cry because it makes you feel big. (This goes for 99.9 percent of the stories on The only stories I have ever seen that deserved being flamed was this one author that I seen when I first found The author only wrote that so and so charater liked to go poopie and eats it to. Though that probably deserves flames, it is still wrong to do it. It should be reported as abuse because that kind of person is only doing it to get the flames for some odd reason I believe.)

This little faq section may become permanent before review responses if I get a lot of reviews or e-mails asking the same questions but I will still try to respond to all reviews.

Review Respones for the last chapter of Starting Over: Do You Want to be Friends?

**Lov3the3vil:** Ranko is feeling much better now and yep, she did chose Bakura. I hope some of your questions were answered in this chapter. As for Xellos, he went to regain the rest of his power and find some amplifiers that were similar to Lina's and retrieve some books and scrolls to help teach Ranko. Hope you like the sequel so far.

**Shinigami:** Yep, Sakura did get through her some and as for why nobody helped them, Soun was pretty much off in his own world which is one of the things that I don't like about Soun. I think if he didn't wallow in self pity like he did, things could have been much better in both cannon and in my story. I wanted to leave Soun cannon up until he learned the truth and his little dream world were shattered. If he would have woken up much sooner, Kasumi wouldn't have been so repressed, Nabiki wouldn't have been so cold and Akane wouldn't have been so angry.

**TheWhiteMonk:** Sorry about that, I do intend to make expanded chapters sometime in the future, hopefully soon. Sorry about the cliffhanger too. Hope you liked the sequel so far, thanks.

**RubberNeck:** Yep, Do You Want to be Friends is done for now but the sequel is in the works and I may work on the prequel a little bit to at the same time though the sequel will get most of my attention for the time being.

**Ebona Nite:** Thanks, the first part of the cardcaptors arc is done and a tournament will be taking place within the next few chapters but there is also more cardcaptor action to come as a new character will be coming in when school starts.

**AshK:** That sounds like fun, I'm just using a simple program called angrydwarf to make my website. It works kind of like printshop or something like that and does all the coding itself. Your welcome though I doubt Pegasus, Marik or Dartz will show up though it is always a possibility. I'll e-mail soon about your stories, I would like to read them, thanks.

**Darkman v3:** I hope you are enjoying the sequel so far.

**Firehedgehog:** Thanks, here is the first chapter of the sequel, I hope you liked it.

**Isumo 1489:** Thanks, I wanted to make the ending a bit different so I also had the first card transformed here to giving Ranko control of it instead of Yue. I'll e-mail very soon, I'd love to see Kaiba lose and someone else will lose too, the heart of the cards may be strong, but can it beat Bakura? I'd love help with the final season because I know nothing about it, I'm not even too sure how the battle city part ended. I seen most of it but not all of it, thanks.

**Darkman v3:** I might, there is going to be so much happening in the sequel that it will end up being much longer than it's predecessor.

Well, here's the first chapter of the sequel, I hope everyone enjoyed it. It may be a few days before I finish the next chapter because I'm going to read some now. Thank you everyone for your support so far and all of your reviews and thank you to everyone who is enjoying this story.

Until Next Time,

Ja Ne


	2. Chapter 2

Starting Over: Sorceress of the Cards

Chapter 2

Written by Senshi of Valis

Ranma ½ created by Rumiko Takahashi

Card Captor Sakura created by Clamp

Slayers created by ?

YuGiOh created by ?

I don't own any of the anime/manga characters that may appear in cameos.

I don't own any of these series or the characters in each.

PLEASE READ: My computer died and I either need to get it fixed or get a new one. So for now I won't be able to update again for anywhere between one to two weeks depending on what I do about my computer. I borrowed my mom's laptop long enough to post what I had done so far of this chapter though I'm not sure if this is how this chapter will turn out though, I may rewrite this whole chapter and not have Ranko catching Ryou and Meilin. I'll be back soon either way, plus once school starts back up I can use the computers at school. (I'm glad I keep everything backed up on CD-RW and I suggest that most authors do that if possible. I lost a little bit but not much which I'm thankful for.)

SeCtIoN bReAk

It felt great to be back in Nerima after being gone for two weeks. Growing up she would never have really cared when she left a place because it didn't matter, nothing really mattered to her a whole lot then. Now though, she had a real family who loved her and more friends than she ever dreamed possible. She had a place worth returning to, a lace that made her happy.

As she walked down the street her mouth watered at a familiar smell…okynomiyaki. And not just any okynomiyaki but Ukyo's, the best in the world. She hurried the rest of the way to the restaurant, a little miffed still about Xellos's disappearing act since he still hasn't shown back up yet.

As soon as she entered the restaurant she froze, Bakura was leaning over a table kissing Meilin. Ranko's heart felt like it shattered as she let out a startled sob, turned and then ran from the restaurant paying no attention from the calls that followed her. Bakura…he betrayed her, lied to her.

She didn't really care where she ran too, she just wanted to get away from what she just witnessed. How could he do this to her, he said he loved her…and she even came to love him. But now…now she knew the truth. He never loved her, he just pitied her.

Another thought came to her mind though, Ukyo was letting it happen. And Ranko was sure that she seen Nabiki and Akane in there too. They all was letting it happen!

Something solid stopped her as she fell back to look up at a strange boy who fell back the other way. He had strangest looking hair that she had ever seen with all of its spikes of blonde, red and black.

"Are you okay?" A brunette girl asked Ranko.

"What do you care?" Ranko sobbed.

"It's okay, we just want to help." The boy said as he got up and offered Ranko his hand. He had a strange inverted pyramid with a familiar looking eye design on it.

After a few moments hesitation Ranko took the boys hand and let him help her up.

"I'm Yugi and this is Tea." The boy said.

"I-I'm Ranko." Ranko said trying to wipe away the tears from her eyes but it was useless as fresh tears just took there place.

"What happened?" Tea asked, "Did someone try to hurt you?"

"He…He was kissing Mailin…" Ranko sniffed, then realized that they didn't even know her and wouldn't even know what she was talking about.

"Your boyfriend cheated on you?" Tea asked sympathetically, hugging Ranko.

"Bakura…he said he loved me…" Ranko cried, "I seen him…he was kissing another girl…"

Ranko was startled as she seen the boys pyramid grow brightly for a second like Bakura's usually did when Ranko came around him. It seemed so familiar, just like his ring.

"Are you sure it was Bakura?" Yugi asked, but his voice was much deeper than before. "We…aren't exactly friends…But I hate for a misunderstanding to cause you pain."

"What are you talking about?" Ranko asked, pulling away from Tea.

"Bakura is like me…" Yugi said, "A spirit trapped inside of a millinium item."

"What!" Ranko asked, shocked. Normally she would think that this was too crazy, even for her but…After having to catch a deck of magical cards, meeting a goddess, then a mazuko and then training for two weeks in ancient sorcery not to mention Jusenkyo…this was actually sounding a little normal to her…and that scared her.

"My name is Yami." Yami said, "It is complicated…but we share the body of our hosts. It is beneficial to both of us and we have a strong bond."

"I know this sounds crazy." Tea said, "But its true. Still…Bakura, if it is him he can be dangerous…please be careful."

"I'd never harm my Kitten you little fools." Bakura growled walking from the shadows of the alley near them.

"Was it you kissing Meilin?" Ranko asked, her voice faltering.

"No, Ranko." Bakura sighed, "I should have told you about this sooner…Ryou is the true spirit of this body. He…likes Meilin. I love you though, and only you. Bast says that she will try and create a body of my own if you are willing to help her. I wanted to talk to you about it when you got back."

"Can I talk to Ryou?" Ranko asked.

"Sure." Bakura said, the ring glowing for a moment.

"Hi." Bakura…Ryou said, his voice much softer that Bakura's.

"R-Ryou?" Ranko asked nervously.

"I'm sorry for hurting you, Ranko." Ryou said, "We both are, I know Bakura loves you very much."

"I…I don't know what to say." Ranko said softly.

"Please forgive him, Ranko." Ryou said, "You are the only good thing that has happened to him in a long time. Everytime he sees you hurt it tears him apart on the inside."

"I want to speak to him." Ranko sighed as the ring glowed again.

"Bakura?" Ranko asked and he nodded. Ranko grabbed him by his collar and pulled him over so they were face to face. "If you ever…and I do mean EVER scare me like that again…I will turn you into a pretzel."

"Got it." Bakura said nervously, his voice back to the voice of the man she loved.

"Good." Ranko said leaning in and kissing him. After getting over the surprise Bakura wrapped his arms around


End file.
